Zuo Lin'an casually reached for the teapot on the wooden table and poured himself a cup of hot tea.
He was still quite concerned about Chang Sheng. After all, this was someone who would become a partner and might even become the most important NPC in his dungeons in the future.
As long as the man didn't make any errors of principle, Zuo Lin'an was more than happy to turn a blind eye to minor matters.
Lin Xiaolei led Chang Sheng into the house, first introducing the layout before taking him to choose a room.
In reality, only two empty rooms were left.
Chang Sheng wasn't picky either and simply chose one that caught his eye.
At this moment, the two of them were chatting inside the room.
Although Chang Sheng still looked somewhat listless, he appeared resigned to his fate, having seemingly accepted his end.
“Come to think of it, although I've become a puppet NPC of the dungeon, at least I'm still alive.”
When he thought of the other players who had been killed, a lingering fear welled up in his heart.
Lin Xiaolei had already recounted to him everything Zuo Lin'an had said before.
Among those details, what Chang Sheng valued the most was the official resident status in the supernatural world.
“According to what you said,” Chang Sheng muttered, “once this dungeon boss grows stronger in the future, we can also become official residents of the supernatural world.”
“When that time comes, we'll still be able to live like normal people.”
Lin Xiaolei nodded. “Exactly. And I don't think he's lying to us—or rather, there's absolutely no need for him to lie to us.”
“After all, even if he doesn't give us official status, we are still his puppets. We still have to obey his orders and can't resist.”
“So, this must be the truth.”
Chang Sheng relaxed a great deal upon hearing this.
“That's not bad then. Besides, this actually seems like a disguised form of eternal youth and immortality.”
Lin Xiaolei looked at him with relief.
“It's great that you can see it that way. Otherwise, you might have ended up like Liu Da.”
Chang Sheng froze for a moment.
“What? Liu Da? How do you know about Liu Da? Is he not dead?”
Lin Xiaolei was quite surprised to hear this.
“What? You didn't know?”
“Brother An brought someone back earlier. He said his name was Liu Da, but...”
He briefly explained what had just transpired.
Chang Sheng blinked, looking somewhat dazed.
“A puppet... and merchandise? Listed on the system's mall for three Contribution points?”
Lin Xiaolei casually pulled a can of drink from his pocket, popped it open, and stuffed it into Chang Sheng's hand.
“Yeah. Brother An only keeps players who are useful to him. He usually just kills the rest outright. Keeping Liu Da this time was probably just a coincidence.”
“From what I can see, Brother An must have thoroughly figured out all of Liu Da's cards and confirmed he had absolutely no chance of clearing the dungeon. Since Liu Da also possessed some special abilities, he managed to survive.”
“But Brother An had no use for his abilities. So even though he survived, he's only being sold as merchandise. And because he's just merchandise, he doesn't even get the chance to wake up.”
He pointed out the window.
From this room, they could clearly see the nearby white mist through the window.
“Liu Da has been force-shutdown, kept in a constant coma, and was thrown into the white mist by Brother An. Word is, once he's sold, he'll be packaged and shipped out immediately.”
As he spoke, he reached out and grabbed the mini puppet that had just crawled onto the nightstand.
The other puppets were all standing in a dull, orderly line against the wall, leaving only this one with quite a distinct personality.
After examining it closely, Lin Xiaolei noticed that this puppet seemed much more lively than the others.
“Hmm?”
“This one feels pretty good. Did your Puppet Vitalization Art break through?”
Chang Sheng's gaze had been fixed on the distant white mist, and he only snapped out of it when he heard the question.
“Huh?”
“Uh...”
“Yes, it did break through indeed.”
Lin Xiaolei chuckled.
“By the way, you must have explained your abilities right at the beginning of the dungeon, right?”
Chang Sheng did not deny it.
“That's true.”
“Then I bet Brother An must have taken an interest in you right then and there,” Lin Xiaolei said.
Chang Sheng paused, then frowned.
“At the time, there were only me and two other players.”
Lin Xiaolei slowly shook his head.
“See, you don't get it. As the dungeon boss, he possesses a God's-eye view. He can see every corner of the dungeon. Nothing you do or say can escape his notice.”
Chang Sheng opened his mouth, thought back to everything he had done in the dungeon, and then let out a sigh.
“No wonder... It seems I was quite lucky. If I had kept hiding my abilities and said nothing, he might have just killed me outright.”
With that, he tossed the empty beverage can into the trash bin.
“I've learned most of the situation from Uncle Feng. He kept us around because he wants us to serve as NPCs in the dungeons, but we have to wait until the next world.”
“Who knows how long we'll have to wait.”
He stroked his chin, a look of interest suddenly appearing on his face.
“Being an NPC and watching other players struggle to survive in the dungeons actually sounds pretty amusing, doesn't it?”
Since he had suffered himself, he wanted to watch others go through it too.
Lin Xiaolei placed the struggling puppet back onto the nightstand.
“It really is quite fun. But as for the next world... I asked Brother An before, and he said it could be as fast as three or four years, or as slow as over five years.”
Hearing this, Chang Sheng stood up and walked toward the door.
“Come on, let's go out.”
Lin Xiaolei looked up.
“Huh? What are you going out for?”
Chang Sheng opened the door.
“I'm going to find the dungeon boss. Word has it that he took a liking to my puppet-making skills and wants me to vitalize puppets into true living beings to serve as dungeon NPCs.”
“But with my current capabilities, I can't achieve that at all.”
He fell silent for a moment before continuing.
“Furthermore, after becoming a puppet, my state is frozen at the exact moment I failed to clear the dungeon. In other words, no matter how much I cultivate in the future, I won't make any progress.”
“In that case, how am I supposed to vitalize so many puppet lives like he wants?”
Lin Xiaolei naturally knew about this as well.
“That really is a problem.”
In fact, he had always wanted to know about this too.
After all, he had been here for a while now and had previously cultivated under his grandfather's guidance, but it was exactly as Chang Sheng described.
No matter how much he cultivated, things remained the same.
Even though he clearly knew how to perform his lightning techniques better, when he cast them, they carried the exact same power as before, without a single shred of improvement.
Lin Xiaolei followed him outside, where Chang Sheng had already located Zuo Lin'an.
“Mr. Yao...”
Chang Sheng subconsciously wanted to call him Mr. Yao.
But he quickly remembered that the name Yao Wenli did not actually exist; it was merely an NPC name that Zuo Lin'an used after the dungeon opened.
“Young Master Zuo.”
Although Zuo Lin'an was the dungeon boss and held absolute power over the life and death of all his puppets, the upbringing Chang Sheng had received since childhood made it impossible for him to utter the word "master."
However, one could tell from Zuo Lin'an's casual expression that he didn't care about such things at all.
Rate on N.U.
